Intergenerational Inequality and the Interstate Highway System

Weiwu will examine how the construction of the Interstate Highway System reshaped the geography of economic opportunity in the United States. By constructing new linkages in historical administrative tax records that span the near universe of children born between 1964 and 1979, the study measures how large-scale infrastructure investments influenced intergenerational income mobility across neighborhoods. Preliminary analysis shows that highway development increased job connectivity and raised average incomes in suburban areas that gained access to downtown employment centers. However, these benefits were not evenly distributed. As higher-socioeconomic status and predominantly White households relocated toward newly accessible suburbs, central city neighborhoods were left with a growing concentration of lower-income households and diminished fiscal and institutional resources. The result was a widening spatial divide in economic opportunity: some neighborhoods benefited from improved access and upward mobility, while others became increasingly segregated by socioeconomic status and race.